BT Library

Armenian Gospel of the Infancy

ARMENIAN GOSPEL OF THE INFANCY. A late and secondary compilation, ultimately dependent on the Protevangelium of James and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, but greatly amplified. It derives from a Syr. original, but the date of this source is doubtful. The Nestorians toward the end of the 6th cent. tr. a Gospel of the Infancy from Syr. into Armenian, but it was prob. not the present text. James (ANT 83) wrote that there is “little of ancient flavor in the book, and it does not seem to preserve any details, which are not to be found elsewhere, of the old tradition.” One feature of interest is the appearance of Eve as a witness to the Virgin Birth (ch. 9).